OVEC Action Alert - Feb. 24, 2002

OVEC's new website

Events commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Buffalo Creek disaster

Calendar reminder - Last Great Wilderness Show

Senate Energy Bill debates scheduled to start this week—please contact your Senators early and often!

WEBSITE CHANGES

***Please check out OVEC’s redesigned website at www.ohvec.org

New features include news links, updated frequently, to help keep you up to date. You’ll see home page links to OVEC’s latest happenings. We hope you’ll visit the website often to see what’s up. Check out the Action Alerts! on-line—they make for quick navigation to the topics in which you are most interested.

To let us know what you think of the changes, by sending an email to vivian@ohvec.org. If you want to know lots of detail about the new site, click on the notes link near the top of the homepage. The old version of the website is still available, and that will all be incorporated into the new website as we continue construction. OVEC extends deep gratitude to the Kincaids, who volunteered endless hours on the old site.

30TH ANNIVERSARY OF BUFFALO CREEK

--On Monday, Feb. 25 during the 11 p.m. newscast, WOWK Channel 13 will air a 3-minute segment (that's a virtual eon for a 1/2 hour TV news show!) on coal sludge impoundments, with a focus on Massey Energy's Brushy Fork impoundment. The segment, “Lurking Danger,” marks the 30th anniversary of the Buffalo Creek disaster, looks back at the Oct. 11, 2000 Martin County sludge disaster and examines whether another disaster could happen again. Please call or e-mail Channel 13 to let them know what you think about the segment. It’s not often West Virginia TV news devotes so much time to a topic that questions coal industry practices.

Channel 13: E-mail: news@wowktv.com Phone: 800-453-WOWK

--On Tuesday, Feb. 26, the 30th anniversary of the Buffalo Creek disaster, please come out to see two films: "The Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act of Man" and "Buffalo Creek Revisited," at 7 p.m. in the Alumni Lounge in the Student Center at Marshall University. Both films are Mimi Pickering of Appalshop, www.appalshop.org. Presented by SAFE (Student Activism for the Environment), MAPS (Marshall Action for Peaceful Solutions), the Oral History of Appalachia department and OVEC.

REMINDER 

Monday, Feb. 25, 7:30 p.m. in the Don Morris Room, Marshall University Student Center, "The Last Great Wilderness Project," a multi-media slide presentation, offers a close-up look at the fragile and beautiful Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. The free, 90-minute program focuses on the controversy over oil development vs. wilderness protection of the Refuge's coastal plain. Filmmaker Jeff Barrie introduces the show. Hosted by SAFE and MAPS in conjunction with OVEC.

SENATE TO DEBATE ENERGY BILL 

Note: For info on how to contact your Senators: http://www.ohvec.org/Contact/index.html#senators

According to the Sierra Club:

Next week the Senate will begin consideration of Senator Daschle's energy bill, unless things change -- which is always possible in the Senate. Debate will last for at least several days and maybe several weeks. It may be interrupted for other legislation. We anticipate many amendments will be offered to weaken the bill, as well as some amendments may be offered to strengthen it.

More details follow about timing, key amendments, and our message to Senators.

Timing

Currently, the Senate plans to take up the Energy Bill on Wednesday the 27th, but this is predicated on the assumption that when the Campaign Finance Reform bill is brought up on Tuesday some Senators will object and launch a filibuster (a procedural tactic that delays action.) This would then give the Senate time to turn their attention to the Energy Bill on Wednesday -- at least until they were ready to return to CFR. Under any case, the Energy debate will not finish up next week.

Amendments and Process

The fight over Daschle's energy bill began last week when Senator Levin of Michigan, objected when Daschle introduced the bill. Daschle withdrew the bill and instead introduced it as an amendment to S. 517 -- an obscure energy bill. We expect extended debate, many amendments, and perhaps multiple filibusters (some from friends and some from foes. We also expect multiple cloture votes (a procedural vote that forces an end to the filibuster). However, it is completely unclear what the order of any of these will be.

Most likely, the debate will start with some relatively noncontroversial amendments. Our opponents are likely to save the more contentious ones for later, after momentum has been developed. We hear that the Administration is interested in getting some bill out of the Senate, as a "ticket to conference" with the House bill, HR 4, which passed last summer.

Among the hostile amendments we expect will be offered are:

Amendment to add Arctic drilling to the bill, and if that fails, some kind of compromise Arctic drilling to the bill -- Arctic lite.

Amendment to weaken or strip out the Fuel Economy (CAFE) provisions of the bill. (The bill currently contains a Kerry compromise that calls for raising CAFE standards to 35mpg.)

Amendment to weaken or strip out the requirement for increasing the percentage of energy we generate from renewable fuels. (The bill currently calls for 10% renewable fuels by the year 2020.)

Amendment to "streamline" the permitting process for any kind of energy development. This would provide a fast track for bypassing environmental safeguards when considering new energy developments.

Among the amendments that may be offered to strengthen the bill are:

Amendment to increase the renewable fuel requirement from 10% by 2020 to 20% by 2020.

Amendment to provide additional protection from energy developments for special places on the public lands.

These are just the highlights of good and bad amendments that may be offered. There will probably be many more.

Our Message to the Senators (Rockefeller 202-224-6472, fax 202-224-7665 and Byrd 202-224-3954, fax 202-228-0002):

In the next weeks as this bill is being debated, we will want to keep up the pressure on the Senate to oppose all amendments that would weaken the Energy Bill, and support amendments to improve it. As we approach votes on particular amendments, we will be sending out action alerts on those specific issues, but for now, we want to urge Senators to:

Protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from oil drilling by supporting a filibuster and voting against cloture on an Arctic drilling amendment.

Support the new increased fuel economy (CAFE) standards in the bill, by opposing any amendment to strike the fuel economy standards or to weaken the standards.

Support the requirement that at least 10% of our power be generated from renewable fuels (such as solar and wind) by the year 2020, by opposing any amendments to strip or weaken the provision, and if Senator Jeffords offers an amendment to increase this to 20%, vote for it.

Protect our public lands by opposing any amendments to "streamline" new energy developments to bypass environmental safeguards. Support any amendments to provide additional protection from energy development for special places on the public lands.